The Other Posts Will Have to Wait

Part of my "updating" of the blog includes going through and adding labels, or tags, to each of the posts.  Imagine my laughter with this one:  http://carlyandrobbieallred.blogspot.com/2008/07/there-are-no-words.html

Confession:

Ok, all you Loganites...there in fact, is one thing I miss about Logan.

However, it really is only one.

THE PEOPLE!

I loved our ward and the friends we made, and I hope none of you disown me as a friend for harboring non-loving feelings toward Cache Valley.

The truth is, I spent a while there before I served my mission, and it was (to say the least) a pretty rough year. Memories were made that I have since wished had never been made, and it was difficult to travel around town constantly being reminded of what else had occurred there. Anyway, to all of you (whom I truly love), thanks for making it a place I was finally able to create some good memories in!

nostalgia

9 November 2007

Hey Everyone! I thought that I would follow my wife's request to add my side of our "got together" story. So before I go...just know that I tend to write without doing much editing...so...here we go. I honestly don't remember the very first time I met Carly, though I REALLY wish that I could. My first memory, solid memory of her was going sleeping bagging. As is said on Carly's portion, it's when two people get into a sleeping bag together and roll down a big hill. It's the single college student's version of the kids game "Roll down the biggest hill you can find and get really dizzy so that you fall over." There were two problems that night, A.) when I was rolling down the hill with Carly's friend Robyn we rolled over a drainage grate...my hand hurt, and 2.) My friend Jake Havens fell hard and broke his shoulder that night. (Sorry for the random side note) Other activities Carly and I participated in was riding around in cars with snowboards under the back tires (mullet-mobiling), coveting nixon watches, listening to N.E.R.D on my cell phone ring tone, and doing a little snowboarding up at Brian Head Ski Resort near Cedar City. The entire time Carly and I were in Cedar I was either interested in her friend Robyn (about a 1 week span of time) or dating a past girlfriend, Jaimie. So I never thought of Carly as anything other than someone who was really fun to be with. We lost track during the Spring Semester of 2003...but when I went on my mission we wrote a few times. Now most of you already know that I came home after about 6 months for knee surgery. When I got home most of my friends were on missions still, so I tried to contact Cedar City friends. LITERALLY, Carly was the only one who would give me the time of day. I found out that she was living in Logan now going to USU. I was coaching the track team at Davis High and we took a few trips up to USU for meets. I would go up the night before the meet to stay with my sister Sara and her husband Jes...but this gave me a chance to hang out with my old friend Carly again. We saw eachother a couple of times...but that was about it. Then my friends Brandon, Dan, and Chase all decided to transfer up to USU and it just so happend that the ward we moved into was the one that she attended. I walked into church that day and saw a slightly longer haired Carly on the stand preparing to give a talk. It was really random. Carly, Brandon, and I went up the canyon once for a bonfire before she left on her mission...and I saw her at a party just before she left...but that was about it. (I was still dating jaimie at this time...even though Jaimie had just left on her mission). Soon after Jaimie left I started to realize that she was not the one for me (even though I fought it for a while). There were a lot of things missing in that relationship. So while my once friend, and once girlfriend were both on their missions I dated a few girls...gave my family a few scares...and in the end came out with nothing. I got a card from Carly saying "Hi Robbie, It's time for an update! Thats all." on it. (so typically Carly by the way.) I wrote her probably 3 times in the last 3 months of her mission and about a month before she got home I started toying with the idea of asking her out when she got home. I still don't really know what made me think of that...but I'm so happy that I did. I attended her Welcome Home talk in church with Jake Havens. It went a little long and Jake had to go right after the closing prayer. I didn't feel very comfortable there alone...but didn't want to leave without saying hi. So as soon as the prayer was over I walked up to say hi to Carly so I could leave quickly. I didn't think this was weird...but apparently everyone from Carly's family did. They wondered who the "blushing boy" was who wanted to see Carly so badly. (for the record I was not blushing...I got severly (sun) burned the day before and because I have high power allies (some call them widow's peaks) it really shows when I get (sun) burned). After leaving Carly's welcome home I had officially talked myself out of asking her out on a date. It just didn't seem right...I can't put my finger on it though. Anyway...either that night or the next night Carly called me and we talked for a couple hours just to catch up. It was a great conversation. It replanted the idea to take her out in my head. Had we not had that conversation I probably wouldn't have asked her out. So we went on a date the next weekend in Salt Lake. We ate at a SALAD PLACE!...(I was hungry...but we knew that she could eat there so it was good...but I was hugry). Then we went to the planetarium and walked around looking at the exhibits. It was here that I started to REALLY think that I had been missing something that was with Carly all along. It was so much fun to be with her. I wanted to make her happy, and I felt like she wanted the same (a first for me). We saw a comedy show later that night and then talked outside her front door till early in the morning. She left to Arizona to pick up a car she purchased from her brother. When she was there we had a five hour conversation about life. It was amazing! I felt no reservations about telling her my weaknesses and strengths. She accepted me in spite of them and she opened up to me as well. We have since talked about that night and decided that it was a critical point in our relationship. The night she got back into town was a week night...and I decided to drive down even though I had a ton of homework and class in the morning. I am so happy I did. It was from that night on that I knew that I wanted to see where this relationship would go. On numerous occations, and to this day my mom claims that after I started seeing Carly I was happier. I was having a rough couple of years fighting with a number of issues and problems. I was feeling very drained and I was about ready to just move on with life and go a different direction. But Carly gave me a reason to stick around and fight for the lifestyle that I knew I deserved and wanted. She continually enchourages me to strive to reach my goals in life. She sees in me something that I don't understand, but I love her so much and am thankful for her love. That is the story...DONE!

1 November 2007

So many people have asked our story, so I figured that I would post it once and for all....maybe I can get Robbie to put his side on a bit later...we'll see.

Anyway, it all started about 5 years ago when I moved to Cedar City to attend Southern Utah University. When visiting some friends from elementary school (strange, I know--we were friends in kindergarten and such, drifted apart the rest of the years, and became better friends again in college), I noticed this highly attractive person who became known as "Hot Jake."

Eventually, Jake and I kissed, but that ended the infatuation with Hot Jake. Strangely, Hot Jake had this roommate named Robbie that was really fun to hang out with. We would go "mulletmobiling" (placing snowboard decks under tires in a car so that you can spin donuts on pavement), "sleeping bagging" (shoving 2+ people into a sleeping bag and rolling down the hill so that the chances of injury increase exponentially), look up nixon watches online (www.nixonnow.com), and talk about snowboarding and photography. Once we even drove to Park City to go ice skating, only to find out that the rink was closed, so we got hot chocolate at a gas station instead; and another time, Robbie took me and my friend Robyn up to Kaysville to look at Christmas lights.

My relationship with Robbie was strangely similar to my best friend, Ally. We could go months without seeing each other, and rarely hung around the same groups of people, but whenever we were together, it was literally like no time had passed. There was never any "weirdness" and I soon gave Robbie the name "Safe Robbie" because I knew that no matter what happened, he would never be romantically interested in me, nor I in him. Being with him was safe.

After the first year of college, Robbie entered the mission field, where I wrote to him periodically. In fact, I still have the letters he sent back to me....they are truly amusing. I stayed in Cedar for another year then moved to Logan to go to USU (the big guy was in charge, I didn't want to leave Cedar). It seemed I was there to get my roommates married--they would not have found their current spouses the way they did had I not been there.

One year after moving to Logan, I turned in my own mission papers. Soon, Robbie ended up moving to Logan as well. It was funny to be speaking in church, and see him walk into the chapel--He moved into my ward!

We saw each other a few times over the summer, and I entered the mission field in September of 2005. He attended the open house before I left, and while I was in Indiana, Robbie wrote to me a few times.

I returned home on March 29, 2007 and gave my homecoming address on Easter Sunday, April 8, 2007. On the 12th, that next Thursday night, he took me on a date. We spent a lot of time together; my parents were worried that I was leading him on. I wasn't completely convinced at that time that I wasn't doing exactly that.

April 27, I met Robbie up in Kaysville to spend the day with him. His mom and sisters as well as grandma were going to lunch that day. We were invited, so I was suddenly exposed to a large amount of Allreds all in one day. The icing on the cake was when Robbie's nephew, Alex, turned around and said, "Robbie, I have a girlfriend too!" Wow. So much for not being sure if I was really going to truly and seriously date him, now the whole family was involved! The problem was only that I knew inside that the moment I let myself become Robbie's girlfriend I was done. I knew already that there was something here, I just had convinced byself I wan't ready yet for that.

My parents had gone to the cabin that night, so I really wasn't worried about making it home at any particular time. We hung out all day and rented "Walk the Line" which apparently stimulates some incredible conversation....before too long we were "hypothetically speaking" about getting married. Only it wasn't very "hypothetical," and we both knew it. Luckily for me and my fear of the future, I was only his girlfriend for about 4 hours...

...until I became the fiancee.

One week later, our parents met us at Mimi's Cafe in Sandy for dinner, and we went to Le Jardin together to see if it was the right place for the reception. Another wedding reception was in progress, and we were definitely in jeans. Suddenly, Robbie pulls me over to a nearby water fountain, gets down on one knee, and asks me to be his wife. It was darling to see how nervous he was, and eventually we got it on the correct hand/finger. To top it all off, we had attracted quite the crowd, that thought that the bride and groom celebrating their wedding that night should know, assuming that we knew them. They were wrong. We left quickly, before they could attract more attention to the wedding crashers. A few months later, we were married. And that's that.